


Pulling the Strings

by arysthaeniru



Series: the city is an abyss [5]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Gen, depressing things, yukimura is very machiavellian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-13
Updated: 2014-10-13
Packaged: 2018-02-21 00:20:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2448434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arysthaeniru/pseuds/arysthaeniru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of the main things about manipulating people like this man, was to never leave them enough room to argue or talk back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pulling the Strings

The problem with the slums was that they had grown too fast. Just twenty years ago, the city had been a small rural gathering, though Yukimura barely remembered the fields and the flowers.There were vague memories of his mother cooing at him with a bunch of bright flowers as he’d gurgled and tried to grip her skirts, but nothing more concrete. He remembered his mother’s eventual death to cholera with much more clarity. 

In any case, the rural lifestyle had been dying as the land became less and less fertile, and then suddenly, the railroads and the industries came with their gas-guzzling power plants and pollution and a new way to revive the economy. And everything had changed.

People flooded into the city from the farms in the wide radius around the city and the factories had turned into huge guzzling corporations and sweat-houses. And there had been too many people trying to get it rich through factories and oil and coal and mining, and not enough trying to build new, safe houses and infrastructure. So then, from a necessity of needing somewhere to live and love and die, the slums grew up around the city, like the pus that festered around the city on the hill. 

Too many people and not enough resources and the physical difference between the city and the slums, had led to the slums becoming almost completely separate from the actual city. And of course, nobody important wanted to stay in the slums or provide anything to the common workers, so the slums became isolated, with no rules and no reason and anarchy had ruled, when Yukimura had been fifteen and ill and tired and had been on the streets for a year, after the eventual death of his mother.

The vacuum of actual authority, meant that authority was restored by crime. Yukimura’s crime group, of a bunch of other street rats, who pulled themselves up by robbing from enough people to get an empty warehouse and some new clothes and some weapons. And from there, people had fallen into line. People wanted order, a break from the anarchy and chaos. They’d set up their own rules and while these rules were twisted and corrupt, Yukimura didn’t lie about being an honest man. Not like the politicians up on their hill away from the real life. 

And from there, Yukimura ruled like a King. 

“You have convince the people that the slums are a separate entity from the rest of the city.” said Yukimura, softly and persuasively, to the squat politician, who adjusted his tie nervously as he nodded frantically at Yukimura’s cool grace. 

“But, ahh, you see, there are many people who believe that the slums need to be reduced...” he stammered, nervously, with a half-wide smile. Yukimura felt the urge to roll his eyes, but resisted. All of the politicians were like this and this one was easier to persuade to persuade them, if they were all this pathetic. 

“But it’s your job to re-educate the public, not follow their every whim. Are you not an educated man?” asked Yukimura, with a warm smile. That was a lie, politicians were solely in existence to make what the people wanted to happen, but it wasn’t like anybody followed the majority’s whims anymore. It was an oligarchy, where money ruled everything. “The slums are self-contained. We have our own code of rules to the rest of the country and what we know as normal are not what is normal to you.” Yukimura continued to lie, as he kept talking. 

One of the main things about manipulating people like this man, was to never leave them enough room to argue or talk back. He just had to keep speaking and smiling, which meant his opinion would imprint itself into the man’s psyche. “What you eat for one meal is the week’s meal for a family of three in the slums. We are poor and we are desperate. There is no way to reduce the size that the slums in a humane manner, like the citizens seem to think. You would either have to slaughter half of the population or pump in more than a billion dollars to try and rebuild infrastructure and clean up sanitation. Neither of which are pleasant options for the people of our city.”

The politician definitely wanted to speak, but Yukimura wasn’t going to let him, especially not with the slightly disturbed look that he had on his face. “If you send your police force down into the slums, all that will occur is that there will be a slaughter. Either of the officers or of the people in the slums. Just leave the slums be. Persuade your voters and the government that this is what is necessary.” Yukimura finished finally, with a pleasant smile. 

The man was practically dripping with sweat and Yukimura sighed, softly. Maybe he’d gone too hard on him. He didn’t interact with the people from the city very often, so it was difficult to judge about how persuasive he needed to be. 

The problem with looking small and delicate, was that he was easily recognisable as the leader of the slum’s crime ring. There was no getting around with a disguise and too much of his presence at the city’s politics would make too many people suspicious. He sent proxies as often as he could get away with and only showed up when it was utterly necessary.

Like today. If the city paid too much interest to the slums, there would be a riot. Slums always improved by themselves slowly or collapsed. Any drastic change just led to disaster. And Yukimura liked the system that they had now, which was _not_ the case for most of the people in his employ. 

Which had meant that this was a mission that he’d had to undertake himself. “Ah, I’ll see what I can do, Yukimura-san.” he said, finally, with a shallow bow. “But forces are against me, you understand?”

Yukimura just quirked his eyebrows as he sleekly stood up. “I’m trusting you. Don’t fail me. Or we may see a sudden halt in your expenses on that new house away from the mainland, hmm?” he said, politely, as if commenting on the weather. 

The man paled rapidly and nodded like a marionette. Yukimura inclined his head lightly, with the look that made it seem like he was merely giving the man the honour of seeing his neck, and walked out of the door, with a confident stride. 

On his way out of the sleek buildings that simultaneously made him sick and fascinated him, he passed Tezuka Kunimitsu, captain of the police forces in the corridor, who shot him a cold glare. With a reception like that, Yukimura just had to stop. “Tezuka.” he said, softly, as if he really cared anything about Tezuka’s opinion. 

“Yukimura.” said Tezuka, with a blank expression, for anyone who wasn’t looking. But Yukimura was an expert at reading people and he could feel the mingled feelings of disgust and contempt for Yukimura in the stiff way that Tezuka held himself and how his shoulders bunched up, as if ready to step away from Yukimura, any minute. 

“It’s a pleasure to see you.” said Yukimura, with an acid smile. “Tell me, how have things been going along in the department?” he asked sweetly, as if he didn’t know the every move of the police department, thanks to their three moles inside it.

Tezuka’s jaw tightened, but his voice was carefully blank when he spoke. “Crime will be quelled in the slums. It is a disgrace to the city that it even exists.”

Yukimura raised an eyebrow, coolly. “My my, Tezuka, if you believe that the change you want for the slums can come from a policeman on the beat, you’re sorely mistaken. The people of the slums will fight any armed intruders, man for man, woman for woman, blood for blood.”

“It is because they do not realize the positive change that we will bring to them. They are uneducated, they do not know what is best for them because they have never been taught about what is right.” said Tezuka, stiffly. It was perhaps the most that Yukimura had really heard the man speak outside of a scripted speech, but it sounded almost hesitant, as if someone was feeding the lines to him. Another politician? 

“If you truly believe that by arming the police and sending them into the slums, you will heal the slums of the cankering sore of crime, you are either a fool or you are lying to yourself. And I have never considered you a stupid man, Tezuka.” said Yukimura, his voice almost quieter than a mouse, as he stepped close to Tezuka, pressing into the man’s personal space. “Money is the only thing that rules in this world. He who has money will win. That’s survival of the fittest and that is the only education that the children of the slums really need.”

“Justice rules our hearts.” stated Tezuka, a slight twitch in his eyebrow as he tolerated Yukimura’s invasion of his space, only because stepping back would be looking weak.

Yukimura just scoffed and stepped back, as he adjusted his tie. “If that was really true, Tezuka, where was the justice ten years ago, when the slums blossomed with little-to-no-control over them? We humans are ruled by monetary gain and by fear and this action is both for the city.”

“And keeping the slums as they are, is a monetary gain for you.” challenged Tezuka.

Yukimura just smirked. “When did I ever say that I was not ruled by money?” he asked, lightly, his eyes dark, as he stepped away and walked away from Tezuka’s disgusted glare. He was determined to be the one with money and the one on top and he would stop at anything to see that through.


End file.
